1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic-inorganic hybrid composition containing an inorganic particle and a curable resin, an optical member prepared using the composition, and an optical device including the optical member.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Liquid crystals of a liquid crystal display (LCD), which is a form of a display, cannot emit light by themselves but only pass through or block the light in accordance with the electric signal input. Therefore, in order to display information on the display panels of LCDs, the LCD device needs an illumination unit that illuminates the display panel from the back of the display panel.
The illumination device used in displays may include a light source that provides light, a light-guide plate that guides the light provided by the light source towards a display panel, and an optical sheet that diffuses and/or collects the light passed through the light guide plate for provision to the display panel. Such optical sheets may include a diffusion sheet that scatters the light, and a light-collecting sheet that collects the light.
However, about 50% or more of the light emitted from the light source is lost by those optical sheets themselves. Although attempts have been made to address this problem by altering structures of the optical sheets, such as diffusing or light-collecting patterns, such structural alteration can only be done to a certain extent. Therefore, a different approach that aims to produce optical sheets with material having a high refractivity has been made, so as to minimize the amount of light loss by emission in directions other than toward the display panel.
However, it is difficult to endow an optical sheet with the advantage of high refractivity, solely by characteristics of the organic composition constituting the optical sheet alone. Also, since it is inevitable that a sulfur compound prone to yellowing will be used to produce low cost optical sheets with a high refractivity, a problem of reduced product reliability occurs.
Also, among other optical sheets, a light-collecting sheet is a sheet that has a light-collecting pattern which comprises a plurality of prisms. Prism-mountains of the respective prisms assume a structure that is prone to becoming compressed and collapsing under external stress. When the prism-mountains are damaged due to external stress, the viewer perceives the presence of mark on the LCD device, resulting in degradation in the quality of display.